Review: THE FEMALE MAN by Joanna Russ

Review: THE FEMALE MAN by Joanna Russ

THE FEMALE MAN by the illimitable SF Author Joanna Russ is maximal In-Your-Face no-holds-barred Feminist Pride Science Fiction. Russ pulls no punches; she is unabashedly and wholeheartedly both Feminist and Sapphic. She is also skillfully an anthropologist of both then-contempary Culture [oh, how amazingly she skewers male domination-privilege, both accurately, and simultaneously laughably and tremendously infuriatingly.

Ms. Russ' commentaries on female/male dichotomy are extraordinarily cutting, as sharp and acerbic as a new axe edge, as effective dry ice. Also in caution, her inhabitants of the other planet/time/dimension/probability do not adhere to recognition of human taboos [I think they do not hold taboos at all], so even though primarily offstage, some encounters may be found offensive by some readers.

I see her resonances of the consciousnesses of Shirley Jackson, of Betty Friedan, and of Sylvia Plath.

PS: The author, in addition to promulgating Feminist perspectives and viewpoints, also serves an anthropological function as she examines Culture in both our mundane consensus reality, and the Culture in the alternate probability. So Art, Symphony, Dance, Music, Painting, and so forth are subjects touched upon.

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